May 2005

May 31
My Apartment
So, I'm moving to a new apartment at the end of June. The lease is up on my place and well, it has a few problems. I've heard some good things about the new place and I'm pretty excited because it sounds like it's going to be a lot nicer than the place I have now. I had a day off so I thought I'd go take a look around the area and figure out where the important things are - grocery store, bars, shops etc. I knew where the building was because I can see it from my office building, so I took a look at the map and headed out.

After walking for half an hour I should have been in about the right area, on the other side of the canal. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be a road in the direction of the building and the area I was in was a little creepy and a little slummy. When I realized the road I was on wasn't going in the right direction, I turned around and walked back, hoping to find a different bridge that would put me in the right area. But, the closer I got to the bridge, the slummier and creepier it got, with no visible way to the area where the building is. Then, as I was walking, I felt a little tug at my purse and realized that someone was trying to put his hand in it. I screamed at him and accidently knocked over a small boy, which then caused his mother to start screaming at me.

And of course it was over 30 degrees. So, I guess I'll wait until the school takes me there. I just hope I don't have to walk through that area on the way to work every day.

7:46 AM

Shanghai
It was a month ago, but here's my Shanghai story, anyway. For May holiday, which was four days for me, though some other teachers ended up with as much as seven - don't ask me why - I decided to meet up with Stacey and Dave in Shanghai for some shopping and sightseeing. We went to the knockoff market, which was really the highlight of the trip for me, and bargained with the vendors for various things. Dave and I ended up with nice pairs of fake Oakley sunglasses and Stacey got a really pretty traditional silk shirt. The market is entertaining with hundreds of people asking you if you want dvds or rolexes. If somebody makes it, you can a get a pirated version there.

We spent an afternoon at the Shanghai natural history museum, which had a small array of pirated dinosaurs. Stacey insists they are real, I disagree, however, I do admit they had a few real bones there. Anyway, I've posted a picture.

Stacey and I spent a morning trying to find one museum, though we were unsucessful. The museum was a display on the history of sex culture in China, but from what we were able to understand, had moved a few times to various inconspicuous locations.

Stacey and Dave were able to get some great pictures of the Shanghai skyline, both day and night, and I have posted some of these stolen photos as well. I've also put up some photos of Stacey and me looking like tourists.

6:35 AM

May 29
the yellow watermelon story
I've had some questions about the yellow watermelon story, so I think I should clarify. I went to the supermarket here in Wuxi one day to buy some fruit. I saw something that looked like a watermelon, but much smaller - about the size of a cantelope - so I decided to buy one instead of one of the bigger ones, which would never fit in my fridge. Anyway, when I cut it open I found that instead of being the standard pink of the bigger ones, it was yellow inside. I was worried it might be unripe, and since some fruits are deadly when not ripe, I decided to be cautious and text messaged Joe to make sure it wouldn't make me die if I ate it. Joe assured me it was okay, so I tried it and it was fine - actually much sweeter than the pink ones. See my diagram for a better idea.

I later inquired as to what the yellow ones were, and from what I was able to understand, the yellow ones are some form of recessive genetic mutation, that the Chinese have recently started actively breeding in the past five years. I've received mixed ideas about whether or not they're available in the West, although I'm fairly sure they're not available in Europe.

Anyway, that's the yellow watermelon story.

June 2 - As an addendum, I also tried a white honeydew. It was also very tasty.



4:24 AM

May 28
Chinese job of the week
Recently, I've come up with a way to give recognition to the many different forms of employment that arise in a country with 1.3 billion people it has nothing to do with. It's the Chinese Job of the Week Award, given to the person with the most useless or random job.

Previous winners are as follows:

- man who hands out "umbrella condoms" or bags to put over your umbrella in order to prevent leakage of water, but that, inevitably, are always too small.

- woman who cleans the outside of the garbage cans only when it's raining

- public washroom guard

- the four or five different people in the supermarket who have to stamp your receipt before you can leave with your groceries

- man or woman who sweeps the streets with handmade grass brooms

- woman whose job it is to mop (with a mop and bucket) the carpet in my office building twice a day

This week's winner is:

Unfortunately, the popluar candidate for the award this week cannot be named. But, the runner up is the group of people whose job it is to make the elevators in my 33 floor office building not work, by either taking them out of service during peak hours to save energy or by taking them out of service so they don't have to wait for an elevator when they want to go back downstairs. Part of this group is also responsible for watching the security cameras in the elevators in case they need to randomly yell at you. A round of applause for this week's featured group of employees.

12:58 AM

May 23
Photos
I've added some photos to the album section. I can't take credit for them, I received them as part of a foward, but can't seem to forward them on to anyone, and no one really likes receiving forwards anyway. So, take a look if you want, or don't. The title is "Skills only found in China."

2:56 AM

May 22
More to come...
So, I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon. It's probably easier than writing an email to everyone I know. I will post some stories of my adventures so far, shortly. If you haven't heard, I left Canada on March 14, 2005 and headed west - all the way. Now I'm living in a small city of around 5 million people with the same geographic size of Guelph called Wuxi, which is located in the People's Republic of China.

6:21 AM